Print by David Hockney entitled 'No.3 The Start of the Spending Spree' from the series 'A Rake's Progress'. Great Britain, ca. 1963.

Image in red and black, features a bottle, man to the left, a doorway and palm trees, beach, clouds and a red sun (the only coloured part of the image) to the right.

Suite originally housed in a black cloth slip-case lettered on spine in gold ‘A RAKE’S PROGRESS DAVID HOCKNEY’ along with ‘ea’ (logo). Inside a red cloth portolio. Slip-case is unnumbered and is stored elsewhere, currently (2011) at the back of '1st Mezz' in the National Art Library.
Inside the slip-case remain the following (description and transcripts):
3 loose sheets each with watermark in lower left corner of shield with lion over circles and text ‘CRISBROOK / JBG’
Sheet 1: [Title in red; text in black] ‘A Rake’s Progress / A graphic tale comprising sixteen etchings 1961 to 1963 / David Hockney / Editions Alecto, The Print Centre, 8 Holland Street, London W.8 / In Association with the Royal College of Art. December, 1963’
Sheet 2: ‘The etchings were begun in London in September 1961 / after a visit to the United States. My intention was to make / eight plates, keeping the original titles but moving the / setting to New York. The Royal Collage, on seeing me start / work, were anxious to extend the series with the idea of / incorporating the plates in a book of reproductions / to be printed by the Lion and Unicorn Press; accordingly I set / out to make twenty-four plates, but later reduced the total / to sixteen, retaining the numbering from one to eight and / most of the titles of the original tale. / Altogether I made about thirty five plates of which nineteen / were abandoned, so leaving these sixteen in the published / set. No 7 and 7a were etched at the Pratt Graphic / Workshop in New York City 6 May of this year, the others / at the Royal College of Art from 1961 to 1963. / December 1963 [signed David Hockney in pencil] Set number 25/50.’ [edition number in pencil]
Sheet 3: [underlined transcript below printed in red; rest of text in black]
A Rake’s Progress / Etched On Zinc Plates 12” x 16” / Printed by C.H. Welch. London / Paper 44lb. Crisbrooke Royal Hotpress / by Barcham Green, Maidstone, Kent / Letterpress The Curwen Press, London, England / Type Times New Roman / Folio Design Eric Ayers / Publishers Editions Alecto, The Print Centre, London, / as folio of sixteen original etchings in / numbered and signed edition limited to / fifty sets with ten further sets of Artist’s / Proofs. / The Lion & Unicorn Press of the Royal / College of Art, London, as a book of / photographic reproductions with / script in a subscribed edition of four / hundred copies.
Dims. of slip-case: 64.7 x 51 x 2cm.
Condition of slip-case: Tear in lower right corner of slip-case and general scuff-marks. Sheets have folds lower left and top right. Title-page has ink smudges in lower right and lower centre.

This print by David Hockney (born 1937) shows how effectively line etching and aquatint can be combined. The red sun and the clouds are patches of aquatint, which under a magnifying glass appear granular. The figure, door and sea are in freely drawn etched line. The palm trees combine aquatint tone with etched line. The red ink was applied and printed at the same time as the black so that the plate could be printed at the same time.

‘The etchings were begun in London in September 1961 after a visit to the United States. My intention was to make eight plates, keeping the original titles but moving the setting to New York.’ (David Hockney)

CIRC.195-1965